Piratestuck!
by CrowCake
Summary: Tavros was once a little boy with a big destiny. Human Pirate AU
1. Crabclaw

Tavros had been different since the day he was born. He came into the world wrong and upside down, like he wasn't ready to face the world head-on yet. His mother screamed and swore into the dead night with no one to help her but the other girls from the corner, and they knew nothing of childbirth. In a way he was lucky he came out the way he did, else his head would be messed up and not his legs, but still he had to make do with using a cane from the day he learned to walk.

There weren't many children living in the port, and those that did were nearly feral. Even if Tavros could keep up with their chasing games and mad dashes from with the market with stolen apples in hand, they didn't exactly take kindly to the crippled son of a prostitute. He spent his early days alone, watching the sea and dreaming. Ships came and went regularly, and Tavros was always at the tavern like clockwork, willing his ears bigger to absorb every detail of their adventures through mythic lands, horrific storms, and legendary pirates. The tavern's owner was pretty nice to him, comparatively. Some of the men that passed through gave Tavros looks that were just downright nasty, worse than the looks he usually got just for being a nuisance. When he was old enough, it was the tavern's owner that ended up giving him odd jobs and teaching him everything a young boy should know. He taught him how to patch himself up when he got hurt and how to remedy illnesses when he got sick; how to tie knots and cook stew, how to tell when it would rain and how to shine shoes, how to read and how to throw a punch. He even fed Tavros when his mother forgot to.

It was through the tavern owner that Tavros ended up with Tinkerbull, a tiny red, yellow, and blue bird with a broken wing and a mangled leg. Over months of painstaking care the wing got better, but the leg was beyond salvaging. Even so, the day the one-legged bird took flight again was the happiest day of Tavros's life. The second happiest was the day after that, when Tinkerbull returned through Tavros's open window and pecked his hand to wake him, asking to be fed. The two were inseparable since.

And then, when Tavros was thirteen, the pirates came. They came for the ship that was docked in the harbor, rumored to be carrying Spanish gold. When they didn't find any on board, they came for the town, taking what they pleased and killing anyone that stood in their way.

Tavros was finishing the dishes for the tavern owner when screams alerted him of the attack. Out the little window he could see several houses on fire and a strange ship in the harbor flying a black flag, but little else since. As he leaned off to the edge to try and get a peek at the street, he was startled when a man he had never seen before marched right by, holding a bloody sword aloft and taking no notice of the boy in the window. Tavros ducked immediately, grabbing Tinkerbull in his hands, holding him to his chest as he crouched and listened as more people ran past on the other side of the wall. There was a banging on the front door and he froze. He could hear the footsteps of the owner and the creak as the door opened, then two bangs and thud and more footsteps stomping in. Tavros pressed himself into the corner between the wall and the sink. They were pirates, he was almost sure of that, and if they came in he'd practically the first thing they'd see, but there was no way he could make it to the storage closet fast enough, especially with his cane out of reach.

Footsteps on the other side of the door grew closer, and Tavros clenched his fingers tighter around Tinkerbull. The bird protest and struggled out of his grasp, flying up and circling the room. Panicking, Tavros flailed his arms in an attempt to get the bird back without making a sound.

_Come here, come here,_ he willed, and then the door burst open. Tavros froze. Tinkerbull landed on his head. The pirate gaped at the little boy in the shadows with the red parrot on his head for a minute, then slammed the door shut. Tavros couldn't bring himself to move more than to snatch Tinkerbull back up in his arms.

"I think I jutht thaw a ghotht," he heard someone say from the other side of the door.

"Don't be ridiculous." This one was a woman's voice, calm and breathy.

There was a bit of shuffling and the door opened again, but all Tavros could really focus on was the gun aimed in his general direction.

"Who are you?" the woman asked sternly. Her bushy black hair took up most of the doorway.

Tavros swallowed and tried to force his mouth to form words. "Uhh-"

"Come out where I can see you," she snapped.

The boy eyed the gun and hesitantly crawled forward. Tinkerbull flapped noisily as he tried to hop on the floor beside him.

"Thee," the first pirate told the woman, but she held up her hand to silence him.

"Torch."

The man rolled his eyes and handed it over. Fire in one hand, gun in the other, she strode closer to Tavros, who flinched away as she got near. Tinkerbull, startled by the flames, sailed into the rafters.

"What's your name?" she asked again.

"Um, uhh, T-Tavros."

Pursing her lips, the woman crouched down in front of him. Tavros tried to skitter back, but she slid her gun into her belt and grabbed him by the front of his shirt before he could get out of reach. He tried to turn his face away when she brought the torch so close he could feel its heat, but she only grabbed his roughly by the chin and turned his head this way and that, searching his face for he couldn't imagine what. He stared back with enormous brown eyes, unable to even form the words to plead for his life.

Several terrifying seconds passed, and it was the pirate impatiently standing in the doorway that broke the silence.

"Well?"

"We should take him the captain to be sure," the woman announced, much to the surprise of everyone in the room.

Tavros didn't even have the courage to protest. He did yelp though, when the woman stood and yanked him up by the elbow.

"Up," she ordered.

Tavros winced reached for the counter to lift himself.

"Oh good, he'th a cripple," the man in the doorway noted unhelpfully.

"Do you think you could carry him?"

The man made a face. "I'm thure Darkleer could do it better, don't you think?" he asked bitterly.

"Germinate," the woman sighed.

The man glared at her and she returned it. He looked like he was ready to argue the point, but changed his mind at the last second and complied. The woman grabbed Tavros under his armpits and hoisted him onto her companion's back with ease.

"Hold on tight and don't fall off," she told the boy. "Or else."

Tavros swallowed and nodded. The pirate muttered something else under his breath and hitched the kid higher. As they left, Tinkerbull settled himself on Tavros's shoulder, effectively blocking his view of the tavern owner's body lying crumpled near the doorway.

Tavros didn't remember much of the trip to the harbor. For one thing, it was short, since the tavern was just about the first thing on the main street coming in from port. For another, it was completely terrifying and Tavros didn't really want to look. The moon was hidden behind thick clouds, fire crackled much to close, there were screams in the distance and someone was sobbing nearby. It was a surreal nightmare. It couldn't be real.

By the time curiosity won out, it was too late to catch any of the town. Tavros peeked over his arm at the looming vessel in the water, the name FREEDOM just barely discernible in the flickering light. The boy's heart thudded faster as soon as the pirate carrying him stepped onto the gangplank. It was terrifying, yes, more than anything, but only in his dreams had Tavros ever been on a real ship. When he was actually on it, he stopped breathing all together. If the pirate noticed, he said nothing. Summoning all his courage, Tavros lifted his head up at the tangle of cords and sails stretching into the night sky. It was somehow bigger than he pictured, larger than life. At last he took in a breath of salt and wood and resin and held it. For a moment, the thrill of something he didn't dare dream about for himself overpowered heart-stopping terror.

And then the pirate was standing by the door at the back of the deck and knocking it with his boot and all the good feelings were gone.

"Who is it?" a voice boomed from inside. Tavros ducked behind the pirate's head.

"It'th me," the man answered. "Open up."

"It's open," the voice answered, quieter but still clearly agitated.

The pirate carrying Tavros huffed a note of irritation before hitching Tavros higher on his hip. When he let go of one of his knees the boy nearly choked him in panic of falling off, but the pirate twisted the door open and had him under both knees again quickly. Readjusting the kid on his back once more, the pirate marched into the dark and kicked the door shut behind him.

The only light in the room came from the wide window on the other side, illuminating the room with the faintest orange. A large table covered in papers took up the of the space, and all around hung various shadowy trinkets, along with a few portraits. In the corner stood a large dresser with an ornate hat hanging off it, and beside the dresser a limp hammock. Between the table and the window Tavros could clearly see the outline of a man. He was turned away from his visitors, his hands clasped behind his back.

"Tell me, Twineye," he said through anger that grew less controlled with each word. "Why is the town on _fire_?"

Tavros flinched, even if the words weren't directed at him. The pirate, Geminate or Twineye or whatever his name was, bounced the boy higher. "Thomebody let Makara hold the torch again."

"Somebody?"

"Why doeth everyone take me for thome kind of babythitter?" Twineye growled, crouching down, though not nearly low enough, and dropping Tavros on the floor with a thud. Tinkerbull squawked at his perch being dropped off beneath him and sailed around before hiding behind his owner, who was still grimacing in pain.

In the meantime, the man by the window had time to whirl around. "Who is this?"

"Ghothtcult and I were hoping you could tell uth," Twineye shrugged.

The man by the window stepped forward and flicked on the oil lamp on the desk. His face was scruffy and not very clean, and his nose looked like it had been broken more than once. His eyes, however, were crystal clear and seething.

"What the fuck am I looking at here?"

Twineye leaned over and studied the boy as well. Tavros looked between the two of them, unsure what to think, still squinting at the sudden light.

"Oh wait, maybe thith'll help." Twineye circled around Tavros. The boy tried to keep him in sight but once the pirate was behind him he slapped his hands over kid's eyes and pulled until he was covering his ears. It kind of hurt Tavros's face, but more than that it pulled his hair something awful. Meanwhile, Tinkerbull cowered on top of the dresser.

The pirate by the table cocked his head and drew closer. Dropping to one knee, he grabbed Tavros by the chin like the woman in the tavern had, although this time Tavros had his nose pushed around and his cheeks stretched and even his lip pulled up briefly to look at his teeth. By the time the pirate pulled away Tavros was shaking.

"Well?" Twineye asked.

"The resemblance is uncanny," the other pirate admitted, straightening up. "Let's see the rest of him."

Tavros looked up at the pirate who only just let go of his head. The man looked back, trying to look annoyed but with an undeniable edge of curiosity. "What? Can't thtand by yourthelf?"

Unable to find words, Tavros just nodded.

"What?" the other pirate asked as Twineye rolled his eyes yet again and hoisted Tavros up by snagging him under the arms.

The other man just watched, frowning. For a second the boy was lifted entirely off the floor, but when he legs touched down again they settled into their usual awkward arrangement. When Twineye tried to let go Tavros nearly toppled over. The other man's frown deepened and he drew a curved sword from the sheaf at his hip. The boy instinctively flinched away, but was held fast. Instead of the slash of pain he had prepared himself for however, Tavros felt his pant leg being lifted, and look down to see the man was doing so with the edge of the blade. It wasn't that much more reassuring.

"Can you walk?" he asked, eyeing the disfigured bone.

"Not, uhh, without a cane," Tavros swallowed. "Sir."

"Where is it then?"

Tavros shrunk into himself. "I, uhh, I must have left it behind...sir."

"Can you do _anything_ useful?" the pirate asked gruffly.

"Oh, well, uhh-"

"Louder."

"I can, um," _Useful or dead. Useful or dead._ "I can cook, a-and wash floors, and, uhh, mend clothes, and bad cuts, also. M-mend them, that is. The cuts. And, uhh-"

"That's enough," the man interrupted, pulling back the sword back and circling around. "Got a name?" he asked as he used the weapon again to lift up the hem of boy's shirt and examine his side and stomach.

"Uhh, Tavros, sir."

"Got a _last_ name?"

Tavros shivered at the feel of metal on his skin as the man looked at his bare back. "No, sir."

As the pirate came back around, he fixed his eerie eyes right on the boy. Perhaps it was just the lighting, but they were so dark they looked almost entirely black.

"Got a father?"

"N-not that I, uhh, know of. Sir."

"Got a mother?"

"Yes, sir."

"I see."

The pirate turned away and Tavros didn't blame him. A kid in a poor stopping port like this with no dad? It wasn't even worth asking what his mother did for a living. It was all too obvious, and pretty much guaranteed anyone looking at Tavros as trash, not that they weren't right for doing so. What he really wanted to know was why the pirates kept looking at him, and if it meant they were going to kill him or just chuck him overboard when they were done with whatever horrible things pirates do.  
>Again, it was Twineye that broke the silence.<p>

"Tho, what do'ya want me to do with him?"

Silence again. Tavros squeezed his eyes shut and silently pleaded for his life. He jerked when the other man swept his hand across the table, sending papers rustling across the table. "Put him here," he instructed as he slid his sword away.

Tavros was quickly losing track of how many times he had been lifted off his feet, but he could add one more to the count as he was swept up and plopped down on a table so high his legs dangled uselessly off the ground. The pirate waved Twineye out of the way planted himself firmly in front of Tavros, now eye to eye with the boy.

"How old are you?"

"Uhh, thirteen, sir."

"Got any sailing experience?"

Tavros shook his head and tried not to meet the other's gaze. "N-no, sir."

"What about navigation?"

"I, uhh, know a little about the stars. Sir."

"Last question. Look at me."

Hesitantly, Tavros did, out of the corner of his eye at first and then straightening up. Every now and then he flickered his eyes away, but when the pirate continued to lean forward and say nothing, the boy eventually managed to look him almost directly in the face.

"Would you like to join my crew?"

Tavros's eyebrows flew up to his forehead. "Huh?"

"Of you've gotta be kidding me," Twineye muttered. The other pirate paid him no mind.

"You'll have to earn your keep, of course," the man continued, straightening up. "And you'd better hope for your sake you're a fast learner. Not only that, nothing will get you killed out here faster than disloyalty, do you understand? "

The boy's jaw quivered and nothing came out, so he just nodded vigorously.

"So are you up for it?"

Piracy! If he agreed he'd be agreeing to becoming a criminal! But if he didn't... he didn't really want to think about that. Life-or-death choices aside, this was his one chance of actually going out to sea, and sailing the oceans like he'd always dreamed. It was almost too good to be true! That, and of course if he said no he could be dead.

Unable to do anything else, Tavros nodded again.

"Out with it, boy," the man barked.

"Y-yes, sir!"

"Yes, _captain_."

"Uhh, yes, captain." It was kind of thrilling to actually say aloud.

"Good." He spun around. "Twineye."

"Yeth?"

Tavros couldn't see it, but it was pretty obvious the captain just gave the other pirate a look. Twineye didn't seem to care, and in fact sounded downright bored when he finally appended, "Captain Crabclaw, thir," with an edge of sarcasm.

"Go get Slick. The kid needs a haircut."

"How do exthpect me to find the guy?" Twineye complained.

The captain just turned back to Tavros and waved a hand over his shoulder. "Follow the stab victims."

Tavros went pale.

Twineye on the other hand curled his lip and left like he was told. When the door clicked shut the captain peeked at it over his shoulder to make sure the other man was really gone before marching over to his dresser situated behind Tavros.

"Your last name is Nitram now, understood?"

"Umm, yes, captain." He didn't dare question why.

"Also, you said you needed cane?"

"Y-yes, captain."

The boy followed Crabclaw with his eyes as he flung the doors open and pushed aside the various hanging clothes. Tavros couldn't really see what he pulled out because the captain's back was to him, but from the little mirror hanging on the inside of one of the dresser's doors, Tavros could see his face. The captain's expression was for once not angry, just sort of sad. It might have just been the light, but for a second it looked his lip twitched into a bittersweet grin of sorts, just a little, and then he turned around and Tavros whirled back in his seat so he wouldn't be caught peaking.

He listened as the captain clicked the doors shut and his heavy boots came up beside him. In his hands was a long white cane, topped with a grip carved into the image of an ornate dragon's head.

"Can you use a sword?" Crabclaw asked.

"Huh? Oh, uhh, I mean, no, sir. Captain!"

"Either is fine," the pirate sighed. "As for swordsman ship," here he paused to pull the dragon's head off the cane, revealing beneath the wood a thin metal blade. "There'll be time to teach you that yet." With that he snapped the sword shut and held it out to Tavros.

The boy reached for the cane with shaking fingers. A sword! A real sword! He'd seen swordfights before, and admittedly he didn't know how he'd be able to move like they did, but man oh man he was going to put every once of effort into trying. When his fingers wrapped around it, however, the captain did not let go.

"You will not lose this, you understand?" he hissed, and somehow his voice was even scarier when it was low than when it was booming. "You will not break it, you will not scratch it, you will not let it leave your sight. If I ever see you come back to me without this, I _will_ kill you. Your head will hang from my mast and your heart will swing from the fucking figurehead. Am I making myself perfectly clear?"

White as a sheet and barely breathing, Tavros gave him the smallest of nods. The captain let go of the cane and clapped him on the back.

"Good lad. Now, get up and let's go find someone to show you around."

Still shaking horribly, though out of fear or excitement he didn't know, Tavros managed to slide himself off the table without falling over. The cane was longer than what he was used to, but the one he had before was getting small for him, and since he had shown no signs of stopping his recent growth spurt, he could at least hope to grow into this one. Tinkerbull settled himself back on Tavros's shoulder as he hobbled along out onto the deck with the captain. 


	2. Nitram

It took all his concentration just to keep up with the man's long strides, such that he nearly bumped into him when he came to a sudden stop. The captain stood, hand on the main mast, the other holding the lamp high, searching up sails for something. Tavros looked, too, but it was too dark to make anything out.

"Moonpaw, I know you're fucking up there," he called. "Come down. I need you."

A second later, a blur of green dropped out of nowhere. The figure rose fluidly from a crouching position and in a motion that was more dance than walk appeared much faster than expected at Tavros's side.

"Who's this," she hummed, placing two delicately folded hands on the boy's shoulder and leaning in much too close for his comfort. Her eyes were strangely large until the captain swung the lamp in her direction and they narrowed into cat-like slits. Tavros stumbled a step back and she closed the space right up again, winding around him and clawing her fingers from one shoulder to the other as she sniffed at his hair. Tinkerbull squawked and fluttered off to the railing, followed all the way by eerie cat eyes.

"Get off him." The captain swung the light at the girl again and she hissed, slipping back around Tavros and assuming her full height next to him, still entirely too close. "That's new recruit."

"Ooh! Furesh meat," she purred, showing more teeth than should be allowed in a human mouth and tiptoeing around him again. Tavros kept his back stiff as a board. "Smells like old meat to me, if you know what I mean," she added, resting her chin on the boy's shoulder and eyeing the captain knowingly. Crabclaw remained unimpressed.

"Show him around," he growled, paying no mind to her Cheshire grin at the ignored observation.

"My purleasure," she replied, hooking Tavros under the arm. "Moonpaw Darkleer at your service."

"Uhh, hi," Tavros managed after a long pause caused by getting distracted with her too-sharp teeth again. "I'm Tavros..." he snuck a look at the captain, "...Nitram."

Moonpaw's eyes lit up. "Rrreally now?" Now she was staring at the captain, too, who was looking at neither one of them.

"Fucking get on with it already," he shooed.

Moonpaw stuck her tongue out at him and pulled Tavros along. "He's not always as grumpy as he pretends to be," she reassured him when the captain was out of earshot.

As Tavros navigated down the small flight of stairs, the girl darted this way and that, hanging from the banister and asking about news from the mainland and about the bird which had just fluttered down to settle on Tavros's shoudler. The boy didn't have many answers for her regarding the news, only the vague tidbits he picked up from the tavern patrons, but he gladly told her about Tinkerbull before she lost interest and began to rattle on about something else. He was surprised she didn't climb up the walls as she scurried around each room, showing Tavros where he could sleep and where everyone ate and this one weird dohickey that made the funny noise when you spun it like this.

She was in the middle of telling him how she had saved the best for last, the kitchen she wasn't _technically_ allowed to go into unsupervised but captain's orders, when footsteps sounded from down the hall. Moonpaw was the first to notice, falling into a defensive crouch by Tavros's feet. The boy continued to stand there, petrified. Just as the steps rounded the corner she pounced, eliciting a loud string of curses from a short, dark-skinned man with a patch over one eye. He swung a knife at her and she jumped back, giggling.

"The big, mean kitty is back," she whispered into Tavros's ear as wound around him.

"This Nitram?" the stranger asked in disgust. "Jesus fucking Christ, Crabclaw is really letting the standard fall around here."

"But he's so nice," Moonpaw pouted, kneeding the boy's stiff shoulders, only resulting in them getting stiffer. "What'do ya want with him?"

"Gotta lop his hair off," the man grinned, looking possibly even more evil than the girl. "Cap'n's orders."

"What if I say no?"

"Then I'd have to make ya."

"Uhh," Tavros budded in, already regretting trapping himself under the beady gaze of the stranger. "If it's okay for, uhh, me to say so, I think that, maybe, we should, uhh, do what the captain says?"

The man let out a barking laugh. "You heard him! Away with you, cat girl. Shoo!"

Moonpaw hissed but backed off.

"C'mon," the man turned and waved for Tavros to follow. "I don't have all fucking night."

The man, whose name the boy learned was Slick, had a fuse as short as his stature. He lead Tavros back up on the deck, and then up again to the steering platform, so the hair would blow away in the breeze. There he hung up a lantern and proceeded to nearly scalp Tavros with not just a razor, and what the boy soon learned was not just a knife, but a blade attached to his wrist where Slick's hand should be. It was a surprise the man didn't cut his ears off with how close he was cutting along the sides of his head, though he mostly left the top completely alone. Meanwhile, Tinkerbull huddled a safe distance away.

Tavros sat as still as possible the entire time, watching the other pirates move around on the shore out of the corner of his eye and listening to what scraps of conversation he could get. At one point the yelling picked up and Tavros saw several silhouettes climb up the masts and loose the sails. The boat started with a creak and Tavros clutched the stool he was seated on, his heart racing a million miles an hour. Slick nearly sliced his head open and he flinched.

"You ain't gonna last a fucking week if you keep acting like such a pussy," the man told him. "At least try to live up to expectations, kid."

"O-okay," Tavros stuttered.

"That all you got?"

"Uhh, okay, sir!"

"Pathetic," Slick spat. "All the looks, none of the charisma."

"Um, what looks?" Tavros tried to peek around at him, but the man grabbed him by the hair painfully and turned him to face forward again.

"Don't tell me you don't fucking know."

"Know what?"

Slick dangerously close to the skin again. "Kid, don't pretend ain't never heard of the fucking Summoner."

"I-I have." Now there was an understatement. The man was a legend, and Tavros knew all of his adventures by heart. He was the greatest pirate who ever lived, surviving encounters with even the likes of the most notoriously dangerous crew on all the seven seas, the Gambligants, captained by none other than the sea devil herself, Spinneret Mindfang. He'd evaded the Empire's forces, braved the harshest storms, sailed to hell and back. He was Tavros's hero. "He's, uhh, just a story though, right?"

"Kid, you must be some kind of stupid," Slick replied through his teeth. "Can't you even tell when you're standing on his fucking ship?"

Tavros whirled around in his chair, effectively nicking his own head a little. His eyes were the size of the moon when he gasped, "T-This is it? He's real? Is, uhh, he here?"

Slick smacked him on the top of the head with the broad side of his hand blade and spun him back around, shoving a towel against the side of his head that was now bleeding and holding the boy's own hand to it. "Brains of a fucking seagull. No, you little twerp, he's been dead for years. Ain't you noticed there aren't any fucking wanted posters of 'im anymore?"

Tavros had seen a wanted poster of him once. It hung on the wall in the tavern, but it was pretty old, older than Tavros, the owner used to joke. Sure enough, though, it had been taken down a few years ago, right around the time the boy had started working there, actually.

"Oh, uhh, I guess I have." He'd always thought it was a joke though, hanging up there with sketches of mermaids and sea monsters people had claimed witness to. "But, uhh, what does that have to do with me?"

Slick came close to cutting his ear off again. "Not many people know this, kid, but I guess I'll let you in on the secret." He paused to slice something so close to the skin Tavros wished for the thousandth time that he would just use scissors. "The Summoner's real name was...lemme think, Rufio or some shit like that. Rufio Nitram."

Tavros spun around again, nicking the other side of his head. "But uh, but that's-"

Slick groaned. "No shit. Hold still, I'm almost done and if you want to fucking impale yourself when you're done, fine by me."

"But, uhh, why did the captain give that name to, uhh-" Tavros began as his head was forced into an uncomfortable angle.

"The Summoner was the captain's best friend," Slick interrupted, yanking the boy's head upright again and fishing a cracked mirror out of his box of sharp objects.

Tavros opened his mouth to ask what that had to do with him when the glass was shoved in his face and he had to do a double-take. Before, his hair had fallen over his face in a ragged mess that came just short of obscuring his eyes. He would like to say that now he was staring into the face of a stranger, but even despite the cracked and deformed mirror the resemblance to a certain wanted poster was uncanny. There were some notable differences since after all, Tavros had what just a few years ago was the face of a child, but overall the resemblance was too much. The mirror clattered to the floor.

Grumbling obscenities, Slick picked it up and dusted it off. When he can confirmed it was no more broken than it had been before, he chucked it haphazardly back where it had come from and pulled Tavros to his feet by his collar.

"Off you go, kid. Cap'n says go find Darkleer in the kitchen. Guess that's where you're gonna be stuck from here on out." He chuckled. "Good luck with that."

The boy fumbled for his cane. "But I, uhh, though Darkleer was that girl..."

Slick rolled his eyes. "Her _brother_, you imbecile."

"Oh," Tavros replied and, blushing over his mistake, shuffled for the main deck with the towel still pressed to his bleeding head. If he thought walking was a challenge before, the floor shifting beneath him on the waves made it a nightmare. Even Tinkerbull had trouble staying on his shoulder through the ordeal.

He mostly stared at his feet on the way across the main deck, trying to ignore the looks he got as he walked past. He was used to people staring because he was a cripple, but now he wasn't so sure if they were staring because of that, because he was new, or because of his face. Still, no one said a word to him until up above his head came a cry of, "look out!"

Tavros looked, and while the correct solution to something falling on you was to jump out of the way, the boy only ducked while his bird sped off somewhere in panic. Impact never came, and when he finally summoned the courage to peek up from between his fingers, he was met with a lopsided grin hanging over his head.

"Sorry about that, motherfucker," slurred the boy currently dangling upside down just inches from Tavros. He couldn't have been older than his late teens, and he currently smelt strongly of burnt hair. The thing which had probably saved both their lives was a rope tangled around his ankle, a rope he swung up to untie.

"Oh, uhh, it's okay," Tavros replied as he stepped back just in time. The other boy finally freed his ankle and fell the rest of the way to the deck with a thud. There he stretched out with a grimace, holding out a hand.

"My name's Gamzee, what's yours?"

"T-Tavros," he answered, awkwardly shaking the guy's hand. "Do you, uhh, need any help?"

"Nah, motherfucker," Gamzee replied, flopping his arms out. "I think I'm just gonna lie here for a while until shit stops up and hurting."

"Oh, um, okay," Tavros replied. The other boy closed his eyes and didn't say anything. Tavros fiddled with his cane restlessly. "See you later, then?"

"Sure thing, bro," Gamzee answered.

"Okay," he muttered as he side-stepped around the strange boy and began his descent for the kitchen.

Had he not been told so beforehand, Tavros would never have guessed that the mountain of a man he met in there was in any way related to the giggly little girl who had taken him around earlier. Perhaps there could have been a resemblance hidden under his dark glasses, but the only one Tavros was able to find were the teeth. Darkleer rarely spoke, but when he did, his mouth full of daggers was terrifying.

He was also kind of a shitty cook and over-salted everything, but Tavros would never dare say as much. Instead he silently cut the vegetables and tried to make himself invisible. It was ironic he should be put in the kitchen to start, since over the next two weeks it was a miracle he didn't succumb to malnourishment with the frequency at which he ran to the railing to be sick. Gamzee reassured him he'd get used to it, and by the third week he did.

It was a surprise mostly to Tavros that Gamzee even wanted anything to do with him, but the guy was all around friendly to everyone, and sooner or later Tavros found himself grinning as he lay in his hammock trying to sleep over the prospect of having an actual real-life friend. He could even call Moonpaw his friend, too, but she was as fickle as the winds and got bored of spending too much time with any one person easily. She and Gamzee were the ones constantly up in the sails, sometimes for the crow's nest, sometimes just for fun. They would occasionally try to get Tavros up there with them, but his legs were almost useless for climbing, and his arms got tired before he even made it to the first sail.

Overall though, Tavros was happy, and for that matter, Tinkerbull was too. Both boy and bird got the chance to spread their wings a little more than they were used to. Life on a pirate ship was not as bad as it was sometimes cracked up to be. The captain, when he wasn't trying his best to be civil, swore worse than anyone on board, even Slick. On the outside his crew didn't seem to respect him as much as Tavros always assumed a crew should, but over the years he learned they'd risk life and limb for him when it came down to it.

Crabclaw was also the one that wasted several months trying to teach Tavros to use a sword. The boy wasn't entirely coordinated enough for the task, and when it proved impossible for him to master the necessary footwork, the captain gave up and handed Tavros a pistol he never used. While the boy could dream of adventure, when it came time to actually fight, Tavros hid below deck and manned the cannons.

Slick had been right, the crew did expect more of him than perhaps they should, but in return Tavros put in twice the effort of any of them. Over the next four years, he managed to land himself every odd job imaginable, from scrubbing the floors to playing ship doctor before disappearing into the kitchens again. At first, Darkleer seemed set on keeping Tavros chopping vegetables and boiling water and not much else, but over time and with the help of a possible intervention from Moonpaw, Tavros was allowed to contribute more. As he soon learned, Darkleer was much more skilled at carving little figurines out of wood for his sister than he was in the culinary field. From the look he got when he caught him at it, however, he learned to keep that fact to himself.

Of all the things Tavros got up to, however, his favorite had to be the night watch. He had the deck completely to himself with nothing but the sound of waves plashing against the hull and the feel of breeze in his hair. The milkyway stretched up above, and the moon shone back from below. If Tavros ever questioned if he belonged at sea, the ocean at night told him the answer.

It would thus only make sense that his life be changed for good on one such night.

He had been leaning over the railing near the end of his shift when Twineye came up behind to relieve him, mug of something strong in hand.

"It'th thith time of night that the merpeople come out," he told Tavros, leaning on his elbows beside him. It was common knowledge that Twineye believed wholeheartedly that mermaids were real, and would tell anyone that would listen the story of how he saw one once. No one, except arguably Gamzee, believed him.

Not wanting to leave yet, Tavros decided to humor him. "What do they, uhh, look like, aside from fish tails I mean?"

"A bit like people, obviouthly," Twineye scoffed before taking a sip. "You can thpot them becauthe of the way their hair floatth on the thurfathe."

"That sounds, uhh, kind of creepy," Tavros replied, gazing off at the water. He'd had the misfortune to see a corpse floating in the sea before. The image came to mind now, and it wasn't pretty. He tried to push it out as he stared off at the expanse of water, marked only by what appeared to be a clump of seaweed. "Is, uhh, that one now?" he pointed.

It was meant as an attempt at a joke, but Twineye leaned in anyway and squinted at the debris. Suddenly, his eyes widened. "Man overboard," he muttered, and then louder, shouting it, "man overboard!"

Cold clenched the pit of Tavros's stomach as he noted on closer inspection the faint shine of pale skin just under the water, mostly hidden from view not by seaweed, but by hair. Twineye was already by the mast, clanging the alarm bell. The sound of it sent Tinkerbull into a panic, and he flew off to hide somewhere in the sails.

Tavros was no more calm than the bird was. "Wha- what do we, uhh, do?"

"Hop in the boat!" Twineye pointed to the lifeboat anchored to the side of the ship.

"But uh, I've never used one of those," Tavros protested.

"It'th eathy," Twineye assured him hurriedly. "I'll lower you down, and you grab that paddle in there and thtart paddling."

"Uhh-"

"Hurry up!"

Tavros did as he was told, lifting himself up onto the railing letting himself drop in an awkward heap in the craft on the other side. Twineye was above him, tossing some rope into the boat and handing him a lantern.

"Ready?" he asked, grabbing onto a lever. Tavros never got a chance to answer before the other thrust the gears into motion, spending the boat much too quickly into the dark water below. Tavros yelped as it hit the water.

"You okay?"

"I, uhh, I think so," he called back.

"Good. Now unhook yourthelf from the thhip and go check that body out!"

Tavros did as he was told with shaking hands, trying not think about bloated corpses. With some uncoordinated scrambling he finally detached the boat and found the oars under the seat where Twineye said they were. It took shouted instructions from back up on deck for Tavros to figure out how to use them, however, and then a lot of pointing from the crew, recently summoned by the alarm, to direct him to where he had to go until finally the body came into his circle of lamplight. Tavros's heart raced and it took him several tries to will himself to touch the body. He jerked his hand back immediately.

"It's, uhh, still warm!" he panicked.

"Well what the fuck are you waiting for?" the captain barked. "Haul him the fuck out and see if he's breathing!"

A low whine issued from somewhere deep in Tavros's throat at the prospect of touching something that may or may not be dead. After a full minute of nervous deliberation, he finally convinced himself he could be saving a life. Squeezing his eyes shut, and plunged in hand into the water while trying not to think too hard about what he was doing. His fingers found some kind of fabric and he just yanked.

It took all his strength to get the limp combination of dead weight and drenched clothing into the lifeboat. He held his breath as he flipped the body over, which was fine considering he would have stopped breathing anyway when he found himself face to face with not a disfigured ugly corpse, but a bleeding girl, probably no older than he was. There was blood all over her, but a quick glance showed that at least she had all her limbs intact. The majority of the blood clung to her face, where her hair plastered itself over one eye. Although Tavros moved the hair out of the way, there was still too much clotting to tell what was wrong. Her other eye was closed, probably for the better since seawater in a wound this bad would probably be unbearable if she were conscious.

"Well?" the captain called. "Is he alive?"

Tavros glanced over his shoulder back at the ship, and then back at the girl. Of course he wouldn't think twice about checking for breathing if this were a man in the bottom of his boat, but staring at the girl's chest made him feel creepy. He did it anyway. No movement. Next, he rolled her over carefully onto her side and gave her back a thump. Much to his relief, she sputtered, coughed, and went limp again.

"Very much, uhh, alive, sir!" he yelled over his shoulder.

"Good! Now get the fuck back here!"

This he did, joined halfway by Tinkerbull, whom he had to shoo away from from the other occupant on his boat. Tavros actually felt pretty good about himself as he tied the rope up and helped pull it back to the deck. Every now and then, he spared a glance at the girl again.

"I think I might have, uhh, saved a life today," he told Tinkerbull, who only cocked his head at him.

The others, though initially as thrilled Tavros was, frowned when the girl was pulled into the light.

"You fucking idiot," the captain scowled, holding up the girl's arm by its sleeve. "You brought us a thief, and one that was fucking stupid enough to get caught, at that."

At first Tavros didn't understand, but sure enough, from the left sleeve dangled an arm and only an arm; the hand, as per punishment for theft had been recently severed.


	3. Serket

Oddly enough, Slick was the one that gave a convincing argument for keeping the girl alive.

"The Empire don't just pitch 'em overboard in this sorry fucking state," he explained when it was proposed to the captain to just toss her back and let the sea do the rest. As he spoke, he tapped the patched side of his face with his knife hand. "And this is the Empire's handiwork, I know. Death's preferred to the their methods of extracting information. I wouldn't be fucking surprised if she jumped overboard just to end it."

The crew looked from Slick, to the body, to the captain. Crabclaw groaned.

"Oh fuck it all," he groaned. "An enemy of the Empire is an ally of ours." Then, meeting Tavros's eye specifically, "Until proven otherwise. Get her out of my sight."

And that was how it happened. Darkleer carried her down to one of the supply storage rooms where he helped Tavros arrange the boxes to form a makeshift operating table. Moonpaw kept trying to get a peek at the body until her brother locked her out and Tinkerbull along with her. The poor bird had survived worse.

Between Darkleer and Tavros, they had approximately three fourths of a doctor when it came to medical know-how. First, Ghostcult pulled the girl out of her rags, washed out the injuries, and dressed her in an old nightgown while the men waited outside. Afterward, Darkleer worked on trying to close up her wrist from bleeding anymore, and Tavros took care of everything else. As he cleaned out her eye, or what was left of it, he couldn't help but notice she wasn't what one would call the traditional sort of pretty. Not soft, the way Moonpaw or Ghostcult were. She had a pointy softness, but of course that didn't make any sense so Tavros attributed it to lack of sleep and told himself to stop thinking about it.

By the time they finished, Tavros was surprised to find the sun had already risen and passed its peak while they were working, and it suddenly struck him how even had enough energy to even stay standing. Even so, the prospect of the girl dying while he was asleep was enough of a deterrent from returning to his hammock that Tavros decided to wait around for her to wake up.

He got the feeling he was the one allowed to stay and guard the girl because no one else cared all that much, and quite frankly Tavros couldn't explain why he cared either. Maybe it would have been different if he hadn't convinced himself she'd be nice to him when she woke up. Instead, the hours Tavros didn't spend falling into uneasy sleep and jolting awake, he spent daydreaming. Of course, none of that daydreaming prepared him for what he should do when she did finally stir, so he defaulted to the age-old technique of saying absolutely nothing and staring with his mouth hanging slightly open.

The girl showed her first signs of life when she groaned and raised what he could only assume was once her dominant hand to her bad eye. Only then did it dawn on Tavros that sitting on her blind side was a bad move, even if it did let him watch the bandages for fresh bleeding, but by then she was already staring at the bandaged stump at the end of her arm. Her first reaction was to try and sit up while tearing the bandages off.

"Uhh, you probably shouldn't do that," he interjected, reaching for arm. It never got there because his hand froze in midair when she turned to him. She looked like a cornered wild animal. Her halo of tangled curls did nothing to dispel the impression.

"Who are you? Where am I?" she asked angrily, and then in a higher voice, "where's my hand?"

"Well, uhh, I'm Tavros, and you're on a, uhh, a ship. You're safe now. I, er, we pulled you out of the ocean last night, and, uhh, your hand was already missing by then. Please don't take the, uhh, bandages off yet, though."

With effort she exhaled and put her good hand to her face. Tavros had so many questions he could have filled the silence with. What was her name? What did the Empire want from her, and why her specifically? Was she a pirate or did they pick her up on land?

He didn't have the guts to voice a single one of them. "Maybe you should, uhh, lie back down," he suggested instead."

"I'm fine," she snapped, swinging her feet off the crates.

"Oh no," Tavros flailed. "Please don't stand up!"

"Just try and stop me!" she sneered, forcing herself to her feet. She stood for a moment, swayed, and sat back down with her hand to her head.

"Uhh, please lie down," Tavros pleaded. "I don't know exactly how much blood you lost, but, uhh, I bet it was a lot. That reminds me. You should, uhh, drink this."

"What is it?"

"Just, uhh, some water." He had a whole canteen of freshwater, actually, which he popped open and handed to her. Normally, he'd have to mix water with rum because rum kept longer and freshwater was hard to come by in the middle of the ocean, but with the amount they spent cleaning out her wounds, they were probably headed for a port to get more right now, so drinking it straight was okay.

She accepted the canteen, sipped some, and handed it back.

Tavros didn't take it. "You should drink more, that is, uhh, if you're able."

She glared at him and took another swig.

"You can go ahead and, um, finish it off if you want," he told her when she tried to give it back a second time.

"Fuck that," she replied. She went to reach for the stopper with her left hand and realized she didn't have one. "Fuck," she said again, pitching the canteen at the wall. Tavros flinched. "Fuck!"

"What?"

"This fucking sucks! Are you retarded? Look at this!" She waved her stump in his face. "What am I supposed to do with this? I'm a useless fucking cripple now!"

Tavros shifted awkwardly where he was sitting on the floor. "Well, uhh, I'm sure you can get a cool hook on it or something-"

"I can't do shit with my right hand," she spat. "Do you have any idea how many years this sets my plan back?

"What plan would, uhh, that be, if you don't mind me asking?"

She eyed him up and down. "My plan to be the greatest pirate ever, obviously. It's in my blood!"

"It is?"

"Duuuuuuuuh! Can't you see it?" she asked, turning her head this way and that like her destiny was written on her face.

"Uhh, not really."

She scowled at him and finally threw herself back down with a huff. "Just remember the name Vriska Serket," she told him as she crossed her arms. "One day, I'll be more famous than Captain Mindfang."

"Umm, okay."

She snorted like he wasn't worth her time and turned her back to him. After several seconds of silence, she flipped back over to face him.

"Why are you still here?"

"Uhh, you wanted me to leave?"

Vriska rolled her eyes. "Obviously! Go get me something to eat."

She was pretty bossy for someone who didn't have the strength to stand yet, but Tavros didn't really want to argue. "Sure, okay," he told her as he used the nearby crate to help him to his feet. She, like everyone else upon seeing him stand for the first time, stared at his legs. Awoken by the noise Tavros was making , Tinkerbull fluttered onto his master's shoulder from the corner he had been sleeping in. Tavros was too busy avoiding Vriska's eye and getting out of the room as soon as possible to note her reaction to the bird.

"Make sure it doesn't taste like piss," she yelled after him as the door closed.

He never did managed to bring her the food, piss-flavored or otherwise. Darkleer refused to give him even so much as a slice of bread until Tavros went and slept for at least four hours. Considering the man was twice Tavros's height, he couldn't argue. He was told someone would feed her, but he wasn't told who. He was unfortunate enough to find out after waking up, therefore, that it was the captain himself. Gamzee would later tell him it was a miracle Tavros managed to sleep through the screaming match that had ensued, and then another miracle that the captain allowed (and Vriska agreed) to join their crew afterward.

He chuckled as he hung upside down by his knees from the shrouds. "Double miracle."

It was even starting to look like a triple miracle when, through sheer stubbornness, Vriska got herself off the makeshift bed by the next day. Despite the effort, Crabclaw still refused to give her a weapon, period, or let her off the boat when they finally made it to port. She would have fought him for it, too, if he didn't threaten to abandon her on the island the way she was, unarmed, broke, and injured. With the way the captain raised his voice, even some of the older members of the crew might have believed he meant it, so Vriska was forced to stay put and watch the boat with Tavros and a handful of others.

The two of them sat together on the steering deck, feet dangling over the door to the captain's room. Tinkerbull struggled to hop around below and peck at the crumbs they were throwing for him. The salty breeze tickled their faces as Vriska rattled on about her favorite subject of all: Mindfang. She gestured wildly as she recounted the pirate's exploits, all swinging limbs and cackling laughter and pointy softness and fierce determination. It was something to behold, even if Tavros had heard most of the stories already. He nodded along, even when she got facts wrong. He came close to interrupting her when she spent several minutes detailing how the falling out Mindfang had with the Summoner was all _his_ fault and what a scumbag he turned out to be, but there wasn't enough time for Tavros to insert his words into her monologue, so when she went onto a new subject he let it drop. It wasn't like it mattered anyway, since Tavros to this day still had a hard time believing his lineage, even if a mirror was all the proof he should need.

Then Vriska got to the gem of her tale. Seventeen years ago, they say Mindfang simply vanished off the map. Nobody knew what happened to her. Some said she was dead, but lo and behold, six months later she was back and stronger than ever!

"And do you know what eeeeeeeelse happened seventeen years ago?" she asked Tavros with a glint in her eye.

"Uhh, I was born?"

"No!" she smacked him upside the head. "_I _was born. In an nunnery, actually. They told me a mysterious woman showed up in the middle of the night, went into labor, and was gone the next morning. Don't you think that's a pretty big coincidence? That the great Captain Mindfang goes missing and comes back right after I'm born? Huh?"

"So, uhh, you're saying that...you're Mindfang's daughter?"

Vriska threw her arms up with exaggerated drama. "Of course! Isn't it obvious?"

"I guess so."

"Wait," she cocked an eyebrow. "You believe me?"

"Uhh, sure," Tavros shrugged. "Why not?"

"No one ever believes me," Vriska frowned as she looked off to the horizon.

Tavros had it on good faith that famous pirates could and did have kids, and he was about to say as much, when they both heard racing footsteps and the captain shouting from a distance.

"You girl," he yelled from the shore. He had both his guns in hand and aimed behind him, bringing up the rear of the group that had gone into town. Those that weren't carrying supplies were armed to the teeth. "Get your ass off the deck this fucking second! Nitram, you too."

Vriska was on her feet in an instant.

"Is there trouble?" she asked excitedly.

"There will be if you don't fucking do as I say!" Crabclaw barked back as he and the others raced up the gangplant and pulled it up. "Below deck. _NOW._"

"But why just us?" Vriska stamped her foot.

"Because I fucking said so!"

All around them, the pirates were loosing the sails. Tavros rarely saw everyone in a hurry like this, but more importantly, Crabclaw never ran from a fight. Ever. Whatever they were trying to escape, it was bad, and it was in his best interest to do what he was told.

"C'mon, Vriska," he called, already halfway down the steps. Tinkerbull had attached himself to his shoulder the second the commotion began.

"I want to know why!" she complained.

"Because it's a direct fucking order!" Crabclaw snapped, pointing a gun at her. Vriska's eyes widened and she looked to Tavros, who was too busy making the final step to the main deck to notice. It only took her another glance at the gun and the seriousness written across the captain's face for Vriska to follow.

Once they were below deck, however, she tugged on Tavros's collar to stop him from heading to the sleeping quarters.

"Psst, I got a better idea," she whispered, mischievous grin playing at her lips. "This way."

Tavros didn't have much of a choice. She led him down another flight of stairs to the hold. Cannons lined both sides and ran along the entire length of the ship, while in the middle rested the crates of spare supplies.

"Up here!" she hissed, leaping on the supply pile just as the ship lurched into motion. Up above, light fell through the bars of the hatch.

"I'm not so sure about this, Vriska," Tavros mumbled.

"Oh you'll be fine, you big baby!" She waved. "Give me your cane thing and pull yourself up."

"But-"

"Don't you want to see why they want us down here?" she asked. "We're adults, we should be up there with them, and I want to know why. Now get up here!"

This time, she snatched the cane from him, causing Tavros to fall forward onto the crates. It gave him to choice but to hoist himself up the tiers. There wasn't much space between the highest level and the hatch, but Vriska was too focused on what was going on on deck to pay any mind to the awkward, cramped closeness. Tavros looked too, though there wasn't much to see.

The captain continued to shout orders from somewhere out of sight. They could hear his footsteps walking almost over them a few times, and Tavros legitimately worried if his heart might give the two of them away. Not that they were doing anything wrong, really. They were below deck as they had been told. Still, he felt like he was breaking some sort of rule.

At first, Crabclaw had the crew do everything in their power to make the boat go faster, but all of a sudden Gamzee shouted something from the crow's nest. Tavros couldn't make out what it was over the roar of the wind, but the captain swore loudly and gave the order to drop anchor.

"What?" Vriska hissed, practically in Tavros's ear.

He didn't have any answers for her; he was too busy bracing himself. From their position they could hear the anchor fall and there was a second of silence before the whole ship tipped with the strain of a full stop. Tavros clung to the hatch. Vriska clung to Tavros.

Meanwhile, Crabclaw was yelling for the sails to be put away. Tavros watched as a dozen pairs of feet raced across the deck. The whole ship was turning, he realized, as if ready to fire the cannons at whatever had been chasing them, but the captain was yet to say a single word about manning the artillery.

"I gotta see this," Vriska whispered as she slide off the supply crates.

Tavros just watched, too afraid to say a word, as she raced to the edge of the ship, pulled a cannon away from its hole, and peered out.

"An Imperial ship!" she gasped just loud enough for Tavros to hear. "And they're gaining! What's that idiot doing!"

"Maybe there's, uhh, something in our way," he suggested, racking his brain for some explanation that didn't hinge on the captain suddenly losing his mind.

Vriska was already on it, scrambling across to the other side and looking out that way. Tavros didn't catch what she said, but when she turned around she was ash white.

"They have us surrounded," she breathed when she was at the top of the pile again. "Wind's in their favor."

Tavros swallowed. Luckily for the crew, all the illegal stuff was hidden under a trap door in the captain's quarters. Unluckily for him and Vriska, if this was about smuggling, they'd be busted being in the hold. Worse, the imperial officers might recognize Vriska, and then they were definitely screwed.

The deck was suddenly silent. Tavros and Vriska leaned their ears to the hatch in unison, straining for a clue. There was a slap of wood on wood as someone dropped a gangplank between two ships, just in time for a resounding bang that meant the ships tapped together. Heavy footsteps pierced the silence.

"Can we help you?" Crabclaw asked through his teeth.

"You?" asked a deep male voice Tavros had never heard before. It was dripping with contempt. "I highly doubt it. I need to speak with the captain of this..." the man huffed like he didn't even care to fake a chuckle. "...ship."

"You're speaking to him," Crabclaw replied, his cool escaping through his ears.

"Oh, sorry," the stranger replied. "You just look so...quaint."

"What do you want?"

"Well that depends if you can help me," the voice continued, mockingly calm when contrasted with the captain's. The heavy footsteps began again, drawing closer to the hatch. "You see, we're looking for someone. The Empire lost a very important prisoner the other day in this area. They're dangerous, and we need them back immediately. No ship leaves without being thoroughly searched."

Tavros's eyes widened and he looked over at Vriska, but she was still craning her head to see the man speaking.

"I don't pick up trash," Crabclaw answered. "Everyone I have on board is right here. You have no reason to search my ship."

"Oh, but I have not told you yet who the prisoner is yet." The stranger's voice was honey poured over shards of ice. "_Your kind _might find this interesting."

More footsteps. By leaning forward slightly, Tavros could now see the man's face. Dark, bushy eyebrows not unlike Vriska's, and cheekbones framed by sideburns to match. His most distinct features, however, were the two jagged scars running diagonally across his entire face. Everything about this man screamed dangerous, right down to the perfect neatness of his military uniform.

"I'll speak for what 'my kind' do and don't find interesting." Crabclaw growled.

"Not what, who," the stranger corrected. His patience was starting to slip. It was obvious he was not used to being defied like this. "We're looking for someone rumored to be Mindfang's kid."

This time Vriska returned Tavros's look, but a small smile of excitement played at her lips despite the fear behind it. Meanwhile, the stranger unfurled a wanted poster in his hand. For a second, Tavros's heart stopped at the sight of the face on it, but the name underneath read MINDFANG, not SERKET.

"I'm guessing she'll look something like this."

"Mindfang isn't welcome on this boat while I'm around," Crabclaw answered tersely. "That counts for her descendants as well. Continue your search elsewhere."

"It seems you fail to grasp your situation," the stranger replied through gritted teeth. "You have no say in what I do. I am being polite to you... _people_, so I kindly suggest you comply with the search before we force you to."

For the third time Tavros looked at Vriska, but she continued to stare at the man. The idea burrowing into Tavros's head was crazy, crazier than crazy, but it each thump of his heart in his ears urged it on. What if he could do something to save Vriska? What if?

"Do you, uhh, know him?" he asked her as quietly as possible.

She shook her head. "Never seen him in my life."

Tavros did his best to swallow the lump in his throat as he plucked his bird off his shoulder and held him out to Vriska. This was it.

"Take, uhh, good care of Tinkerbull for me, okay?"

She blinked at him. Tavros forced a smile and slid off the crate, and then down another. Vriska opened her mouth to say something, but Tinkerbull struggled against her grip. She froze and held onto his wings tight as she could to keep him from making any noise. By the time he was settled, Tavros was too far away for her to say anything without someone on deck overhearing. He looked back one then, took in Vriska crouching on the tower of crates under the only light in the vast expanse of the hold, clutching a little red bird to her chest. It was enough reassurance to push him forward.

Tavros stumbled up the stairs trying hard not to think too hard about what he was doing. If he didn't think about it, he wouldn't be scared, right? Wrong, he was still terrified, but he figured if he could get to the point of no return before this crazy kick of motivation ran its course, the crew would be safe.

In his haste he tripped once or twice, so that by the time he made it to the deck everyone was already looking in his direction. Several dozen sets of eyes, all fixed on him. In the time it took him to get to the deck, things had already escalated to Crabclaw pointing a sword at the scarred stranger. It was the stranger's eyes that were the most piercing of all, but they were the ones Tavros had to meet to make this convincing.

"Y-you were, uhh, looking for me?" 


	4. Dualscar

The stranger's eyes narrowed. Next to him, Crabclaw looked livid. In the silence that followed, Tavros's false confidence started to sway. Then the stranger slowly turned and stalked toward him, each step seeming to echo from every direction. When the scarred man finally reached him, he towered over Tavros by at least a head and a half. Tavros didn't think he could move if he tried.

"I was under the impression I was looking for a girl," the stranger said slowly.

A lead weight sank in Tavros's stomach, and he was forced to clench his fist to keep his hands from shaking and giving him away. This was it. He was busted already. The entire stupidity of the idea came crashing down on his head at once. His knees buckled and it was only the miracle of his cane that kept him standing.

The stranger didn't seem to notice though. He dissected Tavros for a moment longer with eyes the color of the sky before a storm, before grunting, "idiots" under his breath and swinging around to his ship.

"What are you waiting for?" He shouted to the officers on his boat. "Take him in!"

Tavros didn't know if he should be relieved or absolutely terrified that his plan worked. He was swiftly ripped off his feet by two men in uniforms with only just enough time to get a good grip in the cane. He yelped, and somewhere below deck he heard Tinkerbull squawked back. Only once he was on the gangplank did it dawn on him that it would be more convincing if he struggled, but with nothing but a strip of wood and a long fall separating him from the churning waters below, he didn't want to risk it. He also wondered if he should say goodbye, but his throat had thoroughly closed up by then and his brain was devoting all its energy to panic. He was held too tightly to be able to look back.

Once on the imperial ship, the men started to haul him straight for the stairs leading inside the ship, but their captain held out a hand to stop them.

"What's this?" he asked, plucking the ornate cane from Tavros's shaking hands. He brushed his fingers along the white head of the dragon, and upon examining the jeweled eyes, declared, "this looks valuable."

There was a scramble of footsteps on the deck of the Freedom.

"Oh, it _is _valuable," the stranger smirked, observing the struggle on board the ship Tavros could no longer see. "I guess I'll be keeping this then. Carry on."

With another wave of his hand Tavros was being moved again, down, down into the prison hold. The last he heard of the events on deck was Crabclaw shouting something indiscernible, followed by a gunshot.

The guards pitched Tavros head first into a cell and had it locked up before he could pick himself off the floor. It was dark down there, and everything smelled like mold and water that had been allowed to sit out for too long. The floor was a damp, as was the rancid-smelling mat in the corner. The lighting was too dim to tell what the stains on it could be.

With nothing but the sounds of the ship creaking into motion, Tavros was left to ponder his fate.

~

An hour later, the scarred man came down for a visit. His lantern nearly blinded Tavros.

"I'll make this easy for you, _pirate_," he hiss through the bars. "Just tell me where your dear, sweet mommy is hiding, and I'll let you go."

Tavros's jaw moved up and down, but nothing came out. If he believed Slick's stories, and mostly he did, 'letting him go' didn't specify where. Generally it was either the gallows or the middle of the ocean.

"Are you retarded in the head, too?" the man snapped.

Tavros shook his head.

"Then spit it out already!"

"I, uhh, I don't know."

"I thought so," the man huffed. "Get used to hunger pains, _boy_, because they won't be relieved until you talk."

He left and didn't come back. Tavros had no method of keeping time, and no way to pass it. A few times he felt a phantom claw in his shoulder, but thank the heavens Tinkerbull wasn't locked up in here with him. The only pastime he had was first mentally kicking himself and then reminding himself that if he hadn't, there might have been a fight and the whole crew could have been taken in. That, or Vriska would be in his place now, and somehow being here instead made him feel a little bit better. She had a plan, after all, he had... not a whole lot. It wasn't like he was ever going to live up to his father's name, so that just meant disappointing everybody. He didn't have goals, and he didn't have dreams even really, since he had pretty much been living them. Four years! Four whole years at sea. It was nothing to write an epic about, but it was a grand adventure fit for a cripple that otherwise wasn't going to amount to much more than washing dishes. So when all was said and done, this was okay. He'd lived a good life.

When the hunger started to bother him, Tavros just went to sleep.

He didn't know how long he slept or what time it was when he woke up, but he was hungrier than when he went to sleep. There were footsteps above his head, but otherwise everything was the same old darkness. This time he tried to close his eyes and imagine.

He thought of his mother's face, the way she always scowled at him when he came home late or dirty or sometimes just because she was in an angry mood. He thought of the tavern owner, and if the tavern had escaped the flames, and how he and his wife were doing now. He thought of Gamzee and Moonpaw and Twineye and Darkleer and Ghostcult and the captain and all the others, and how they'd probably be able to get on without him easy. He had cooked and fixed things and listened, and that was about it, so they could easily find someone to replace him. He thought about Vriska and how if she were in his place now, she would probably be pacing and thinking of a plan and asking herself what would Mindfang do.

That was the big question though, wasn't it? What _would_ Mindfang do, or rather be doing right now. Not in this situation, but in general. And why was the empire suddenly trying so hard to find her? And why did they think Vriska would know where she was. Granted, Vriska probably did. It was just a pity she never got to that part of the story.

Tavros's stomach growled and he wondered if he could just name off one of Mindfang's hideouts and be fed, even if more likely than not it was empty when the empire closed in on it. He'd never been a good liar, but it seemed like he had all the time in the world to practice. Besides, he could stay hungry for a while yet before anything serious happened. He didn't know who he was buying time for, but it felt like it was better to air on the side of caution and wait this thing out.

However, the scarred man had interrogation down to a science. Right when the hunger cramps were becoming too much he returned and again asked again where Mindfang was. Tavros didn't think about the consequences. He stuttered out the location of a hideout and a bowl of thin soup was slid through the bars. Half of it spilled on the way through and a good deal ended up down his chin, but it was something. It only left Tavros more hungry. Again, he coped by going to sleep.

In his nightmares, Crabclaw sliced his stomach open with the sword concealed inside the dragon cane. _Your head will hang from my mast and your heart will swing from the figurehead._

The next day they gave him water and nothing else.

In his dreams he reached his hand into the sea but didn't have the strength to wrench Vriska out. She bled and bled and bled until it consumed the whole ocean.

~

He was woken up by a bucket of seawater over his head. Before Tavros could orient himself to what was happened, someone grabbed his legs and someone else got him around the waist and the two hoisted him up carried him to a dimly lit room. Even though he didn't struggle they were rough with him, sure to leave bruises. They dumped him on a long table and one of them instantly jumped to tying Tavros's arms to the legs of it. The other guy ran a rope over Tavros's legs so he couldn't kick. A door opened and he looked over to see the scarred man again. He was livid.

"Pirates always lie," he said through his teeth as he paced, hands behind his back. "You lie to get what you want, but I have my ways of getting what I want, too."

He gave a nod to one of the men, who retreated to a corner and returned with something Tavros couldn't lift his head high enough to see.

"Hopefully this will teach you tell the truth," the scarred man growled, and gave another nod. The guy from before hoisted a large hammer over his head and brought it down on the captive's shin.

Tavros screamed.

~

When they dumped him back on the floor of his cell, Tavros didn't have the energy to drag himself to the mat he was meant to sleep on. For once he was thankful for the lack of light. If there was anything in his stomach, he'd probably be sick at the sight of his mangled legs. The pain was unbearable, enough that he'd already blacked out twice to his knowledge, and while a sixth sense told him his toes were there, he couldn't move them if he wanted to. For that matter, he didn't want to move anything every again. He'd curl up in a ball and die if even that didn't send stabs of pain wracking through him.

At this point, his only hope of escape was bleeding out, and they didn't even give him that. The scarred man came back when Tavros was on the brink of unconsciousness, and asked again.

"I-I don't know," the prisoner whimpered. "I've, I've never met her. I don't know. Please."

"I guess I'll give you more time to think, then."

The man turned and left. The doctor he brought with him, if Tavros could call him that, remained long enough to shove the bones that once made up Tavros's tibia and fibula roughly into the shape of a leg and bandage them up. Tavros cried out and received no reply. He blacked out again before the job was finished.

He didn't dream.

The next day he managed to crawl to the sleeping mat. Through the haze of pain he found enough sense to remind himself that his legs were pretty useless before. They were in shards now, he'd never walk again even if he did survive, but it was better him than Vriska. Vriska would stay strong through this, and so would he.

They left him watery soup right by the bars. He didn't know how long he stared before he braced himself to go and reach it. The trip over was agony, and drinking the salty excuse for food left him hungrier than before again.

He slept where he lay, dreaming nothing.

The scarred man kicked him in the ribs and asked again. This time Tavros just shook his head.

"Your arms will be next, boy," he warned him.

Tavros did the only thing he could, which was shake his head again. He got another kick for it.

No dreams.

Water.

Question.

No dreams.

Question.

No dreams.

Water.

Question.

No dreams.

Sea water on his head. Arms next.

Except they didn't take him back to the room with the table. They dragged him up into the blinding sunshine and dropped him painfully on the deck. Tavros barely groaned.

"Do you believe me now, Spinneret?" The scarred man growled with sickening satisfaction somewhere above him.

A sea breeze tickled Tavros's cheek and suddenly something cast a shadow over him. He cracked open his good eye, the one that wasn't swollen shut. On the railing of the boat stood a figure, surrounded by a halo of wild hair and her face in shadows.

"...Vriska..." Tavros muttered.

No dreams. 


	5. Mosquita

Tavros awoke to the same throbbing pain and all over ache, but the rancid mold smell gone. Wherever he was, it was soft and smelled strongly of dry herbs and sea life. As consciousness crept up on him, so did the peculiar burning sensation starting below his knees. He tried to ignore it, but it not only persisted but grew in intensity. He groaned and tried to reach out to touch his leg. The fabric under him rustled and the scratch of a chair being pushed out sounded from across the room. Hurried footsteps were followed by a cool hand on his aching forehead.

"Shh, you are safe," a motherly woman's voice said. "Drink."

She propped his head up and pressed a wooden bowl to his lips. Tavros sputtered at the bitter drink filling his mouth.

"Swallow," the woman told him.

He coughed and did as he was told because there was simply no energy in him to think of doing otherwise. When she pulled the now empty bowl away, he dared to crack an eye open. The woman smiled at him. Her skin was so pale it was almost luminescent against the dark green shawl draped over her head and shoulders. Around her neck hung a variety of charms and talismans. Behind her, faint light streaked in from the grimy window overhead and bounced off the forest of glass trinkets hanging form the ceiling. Among the knickknacks hung bundles of drying herbs. Every inch of space was put to use somewhow.

"Sleep," she told him as she turned away.

As if by some spell, Tavros's eyes suddenly felt very heavy. The burning in his legs and the taste in his mouth were swept away in a tide of unconsciousness.

He awoke several more times like this. Each time it was the same woman with the same bitter drink, but each time he felt a little stronger upon waking. At last she had him sit up to drink for himself, this time with a slice of bread.

Sitting gave him the chance to get a better look at the room. Like the ceiling, all the available space was occupied by something. Shelves filled the room, stacked high with jars of multicolored liquid. In the far corner, something was bubbling over a fireplace and the view outside the window was obscured by mangroves.

The burning in Tavro's legs started up again, and he reached to rub it away through the blankets. His hand missed and he looked down. His vision jumped and the soup in his mouth went down the wrong pipe. Chocking, he flipped back the quilt to make sure he was mistaken. He wasn't. Where his knees ended, there was a thick wadding of bandages, then nothing. He was coughing too much to scream, but he hastily scrambled around with his hands where the rest of his legs should be. He could still feel them, calves and feet aching like he'd been sitting on them for days, but they simply weren't there.

The woman in green was there, taking him by the wrists calmly and pulling the blanket back over what was left of his legs.

"Shh," she nursed as she placed his hands by his sides and took back the bowl before he could spill it. "Do not exert yourself excessively at the present time."

"But-" he stammered. "But, uhh, what-"

"Shh," she repeated. "Breathe."

Tavros did, taking in as much of the scent of drying herbs and sweet smoke from the cooking pot as his chest would hold. It hurt a little, but it was the sort of pain that went away with use.

He exhaled. "W-what happened to, uhh, to my...?"

"Too much," the woman sighed as she fluffed the pillow behind him. "If I had not removed them, the infection would have killed you."

Tavros must have looked especially distraught because the woman gave him a reassuring smile as she settled on the edge of the bed and put the back of her hand to his forehead again.

"The infection has been eradicated," she told him. "Fortuitous timing. Mindfang should be back within a day if I am to take her word for it."

As if magnetized, two pieces of memory snapped into place.

"M-Mindfang?"

The woman sat back and gave Tavros on odd look. Before he could say anything, she closed her eyes and shook her head.

"I do not want to know. Eight years without a word from her and then with no warning she arrives with a bullet in her shoulder and the dying son of the Summoner." She raised her hand as if blocking out memories and got to her feet. "When it comes to Mindfang, it is better the questions go unanswered."

Tavros gawked at her. It must have been Mindfang he saw on the deck of the scarred man's ship, but how? Why? The bitter concoction was starting to take effect again, making the pain fuzzy but his head along with it. He faintly remembered being helped back into a lying position, and that was it.

When he woke up again, there were voices.

"-and make sure he does not eat too much solid food for several more days" the woman in green instructed.

"No worries, fussy fangs," a different female voice remarked. "I have liquid bread aplenty."

"And do not affix _those_ to him until the scab tissue has completely- are you listening?"

"Absolutel- ow! Careful!"

"Almost finished."

Tavros turned his head dreamily and looked for the source of the sounds. When his vision came into focus, he immediately whirled his head the other way and stared at the wall in a failed attempt to clear the residual afterimage. He hadn't seen much, just the woman in green bandaging another woman's shoulder by the fire. The other woman had her bare back to him, partially obscured by dark tresses. If his hair hadn't rustled against the pillow, he could have pretended to be asleep for the next few minutes until everybody in the room was fully dressed and his face didn't feel so hot, but no such luck.

"Spinneret," the woman in green sighed exasperatedly.

"I think I heard him move," the other replied as she stood up.

Tavros's shoulders got tenser and tenser with each of her steps until she was standing right over him with the ends of her hair brushing his cheek. He peeked at her out of the corner of his eye and became immediately acquainted with where Vriska got her looks. No need to guess who this was.

Mindfang smiled. "Welcome to the land of the living." She still did not have her shirt on, but she held it to her breasts and her hair did the rest.

Tavros went to thank her, but all that came out was, "uhhh."

"Leave him please, Spinneret," the woman in green called from the fire. Mindfang wrinkled her nose, held up a finger for Tavros to hold this thought, and returned to the fire. Tavros sat up to see that instead of sitting, she pulled something out of her bag and threw it at the bed. It landed squarely on Tavros's face. When it pulled it down, it revealed itself to be a shirt.

"Get dressed," Mindfang called as she settled in front of the woman in green again. "We depart as soon as I'm done."

Get dressed he did, though while the shirt was no problem, he still had a moment of dizziness each time he looked at his bare legs. The pants he was already wearing weren't his, and in fact they were a little big on him, pant legs rolled up way past the knee to expose the bandages. He rolled them back down and tied a knot like he'd seen the people do sometimes when they were missing limbs. Looking at them like this, he could almost pretend these weren't his. The burning was starting up again, which added to the illusion because if he felt it, his own legs had to be there somewhere.

Having finished that, he lifted himself up on his arms and turned himself around so that he faced the edge of the bed. This would be the part where he would stand up, but instead he just sat there with his hands and eyes in his lap while Mindfang tugged her jacket over freshly applied bandages. With help from the woman in green, Tavros was able to get himself from a bed to the chair directly adjacent to it, and the chair was what the women carried to get him outside. It made Tavros feel awkward more than anything. Here he was, fully grown and needing to be carried around. Was the rest of his life going to be like this?

Once outside, Tavros realized the little house was on stilts. The porch doubled as a dock, to which was tied a little rowboat that bobbed in the water of the mangrove swamp. A thick mist hung in the air, essentially hiding the hut from the outside world. If Tavros thought he felt weird being carried in a chair, he felt even dumber being taken from the chair to the boat. By this point he was starting to consider if maybe he hadn't even left Crabclaw's ship at all and this entire mess was just an awful, awful dream. It certainly didn't feel real in the slightest.

While he situated himself on the bench, Mindfang hugged the woman in green goodbye and the woman kissed Mindfang on both cheeks.

"Take care, fussy fangs!" Mindfang called as she crawled into the boat and kicked off from the dock. The boat began to drift and she took up the oars.

"Do not die," the woman in green waved after them. "And strive to visit more frequently."

Mindfang winked and turned to face forward. The motion of it rocked the boat and Tavros gripped the edges with white knuckles.

"Now then," the piratess began as the fog swallowed up the little house. "What would your name be?"

"Uhh, Tavros."

She smiled, but there was something terrifying about it. "Well then, Tavros, puzzle me this. About a week ago I heard a rumor that Captain Dualscar had my _child_ in his custody. I didn't believe it, of course, but he seemed to house the same misconception himself. Tell me, why would that be?"

Tavros swallowed. Mindfang stopped rowing.

"W-well, uhh..." How could he even begin to explain why he made the claim when he barely knew himself? "You, you did have a kid, uhh, seventeen years ago, right?"

Mindfang looked at him for a long time. "...True. There are very few people that know that. However," here she paused as every trace of a smile, fake or otherwise, was wiped from her face. "I believe I would remember if it was a boy."

"Yeah, yeah I, uhh, I know," Tavros started. "But uhh, Du-Dualscar? Dualscar didn't."

Her frown deepened. "Are you trying to say that you deliberately tricked him into taking you into custody?"

Tavros hesitated before nodding.

Mindfang drummed her fingers on the edge of the boat, which had by now drifted to a stop. "If you are a spy, you are not a very good one," she decided at last. "I would be doing your employer a favor by killing you now."

"No, no, uhh, please don't do that," Tavros flailed. "I'm not, uhh, spying on anyone."

"Oh, but you would be the perfect candidate for such a mission," Mindfang insisted, the smile coming back and promising blood. "Except for the tiny detail of being the wrong sex. Tell me, Tavros, what were your reasons then for willingly walking into your own torture chamber?"

"Uhh." That was the question, wasn't it? "I, I don't really know. I didn't really, uhh, think about it. Much. D-Dualscar cornered the ship I was on, and, uhh, demanded to search it because he was had a tip or, uhh, something, that your, your daughter, was in the area, and, uhh, I knew the captain didn't want him to do that, so I just, um..."

"Go on."

"I lied," Tavros finished. He was wringing the edge of his shirt and staring at the dregs of water in the bottom of the boat. He didn't look up once in the long silence that followed, which seemed to stretch on for eternity.

"That's admirable," Mindfang said at last as she picked up the oars. Tavros let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. "I would expect the same loyalty of you, considering I saved your life," she continued.

Tavros's eyes shot up to meet hers.

"Uhh, what?"

"Of course if you do not wish to join my crew, there is always room enough on the bottom of the sea."

"No, uhh, no, I will, I just..." he trailed off, but without meaning to finished his sentence by looking down at what was left of his legs.

"...Do not think you could possibly be of use to me?" she asked slyly. "Oh, believe me, I will make you more useful than your old captain ever did."

For the next year, she made it her mission to do just that.


	6. Mindfang

While waiting for his strength to return, the strain put on Tavros was entirely mental. Mindfang had him memorizing and redrawing maps until the whole world existed somewhere between his brain and his fingertips. She had him study star charts and navigation journals until he could name their longitude from a glance at the sky. While he tried to concentrate on balancing expenses, she talked at him in a flurry of languages and ensured him that in time he would have to learn them all.

When he could stomach real food again, she dragged him onto the deck and pointed to top of the main mast.

"I left my sextant in the crow's nest," she told him. "Bring back for me, would you?"

Tavros looked from her to the crow's nest and back. "Um, how?"

"How do you suppose?"

"I, I don't think I can, uhh-"

"You'll never know until you try," Mindfang smirked as she patted the shrouds. These in particular stretched all the way to top. All the long, long, unearthly high way up to the top.

Tavros gulped and stretched up to grab the ropes.

The first time he didn't even make it the sails before his arms started to burn. Admittedly, this was a little easier without his feet uselessly getting tangled behind him, but it also meant that the way up was all pull and no push. He nearly fell on the way back down and didn't even get time to recover being forced back to his studies.

Attempts to get to the crow's nest occurred several times a day. Tavros's arms and stomach protested his every movement, and his overworked brain checked out the second his head hit the pillow every night. When his stumps finally healed shut, Mindfang revealed what it was she had bought when she left him in the care of the woman in green. The peglegs clamped around the little space left just below his knees, and then again up higher on his thighs. They were not exactly comfortable, and the first time Tavros took a step he fell flat.

Walking practice worked its way into his daily routine.

Once he proved that he could make it across the deck with a cane without falling, he earned himself the unfortunate job of running messages to and from all parts of the ship. Until that point, the crew had for the most part ignored him, not counting the occasional dirty glance. Now, he actually had to talk to them. While Crabclaw ran his ship on a basis of respect, Mindfang seemed to have found the most ruthless psychopaths she could and gambled with god that they wouldn't turn on her. She kept them under her boot with gold and fear, and Tavros suspected he had his father's past relationship to thank for that same protection stemming to him, but there were still some men that he wasn't entirely sure he ever wanted to look in the eye.

Eight months in, Tavros could draw coastlines in his sleep, climb two thirds of the way up, speak fluent French, and understand English

Ten months in, he found a way to cut the ships expenses, was able to climb three quarters of the way up, speak Portugese, and wield a sword.

Eleven months in, he fell on his way down from his morning climb and put an huge crack in one of his legs, though otherwise he was more or less unscathed. Mindfang promised him a replacement if he could translate the eighth book of the Aeneid.

Eleven and a half months in, he did.

It was also around that time that Mindfang began to tell Tavros about the crew, what their breaking price was, what their weaknesses were, how to best get what you want out of them. This last lesson finally snapped the picture together for Tavros. He had always wondered by she was teaching him how to take care of the little details only a captain normally worried about, and until this point had brushed it off as her needing an assistant. Assistant or not, Mindfang had now crossed over to grooming him as her successor, and Tavros had no idea what to think of it.

There was one thing he knew for sure, and that was that he couldn't do it. Pick anyone else on board and they would be able to command respect better. Granted, none of them could be trusted, but Tavros still didn't feel he made all that good of an alternative. In the end, he didn't really want to be a captain anyway, but he never said anything about it, nor about his revelation. Mindfang was expecting something of him, and for the time being he had no reason not to give it to her.

All that changed the night he took a closer look at his new legs. He was cleaning them when he noticed it, a little crossed arrow carved into rim. It was familiar, but it took him a second to realize where he had seen it before.

It was Darkleer's signature.

Memories flowed back like the tide.

Tavros's time on Crabclaw's ship felt like another lifetime. Now, not only was the old crew still out there, they had been close, and recently. It was possible the Freedom was even in the same port as the Gambligants, if only briefly. Something akin to home had been within his grasp.

The more he thought about it, the more he realized he missed all of his old friends. A day didn't go by when he didn't think about Tinkerbull, and each time that though lead to thoughts of the girl with whom he'd left the bird behind. Tavros couldn't remember if he ever promised Vriska that he'd be back, but lying awake in his hammock that night, he made the promise to himself instead.

The next day, he made it to the crow's nest.

****

Though he resolved to return to Crabclaw's crew, Tavros didn't have an inkling of how to go about it. It was only through an incredible stroke of luck, (something he had actually started to believe in after spending so much time being baffled how Mindfang could pull off the things she did,) that the Gambligants set their eye on a shipment of gold from the new world, bound for the royal court. On their way to intercept, rumor must have spread because soon a familiar ship that sent chills down Tavros's spine was spotted on the horizon.

Mindfang couldn't be more gleeful. As a storm brewed overhead, she told her would-be successor about Dualscar. He was lightening personified, she said: quick, deadly, and uncontrollable. While he swore his loyalty to the Empire, he would make his own decisions about who to pursue in its name. His ego would always be his undoing. Mindfang fondly called him her little toy, adding in that no game was worth playing if the stakes weren't high. She was itching to take him on again. Another crazy plan formed in Tavros's mind.

The ships clashed with cannons first, circling like two tigers ready to pounce. The clouds churned threateningly overhead and then, as if through some choreographed ballet, both sides swung across the gap on rope vines.

Tavros had lived through confrontations like this before, but he had always stayed behind on the ship. If he planned to go through with this crazy plan to undo the last, he had to take the leap. Rope in hand, he pulled himself up on the railing. His grip was white as he glance down into the water that could well be his grave.

Never mind, he couldn't do this.

No he had to.

No, he couldn't.

Just as he turned to clamber down, a gust of wind decided it for him. His legs slipped and he was swept forward. His high-pitched scream of terror was drowned out by battle cries all around, though that didn't save him from landing in an undignified but alive heap on Dualscar's deck. Standing would take too long and he had to be swift, so Tavros crawled on hands and knees, dodging pirates and officers engaged in battle. He darted immediately for the captain's quarters and found them predictably locked. He had so hoped they wouldn't be.

Tavros winced as he drew his pistol and aimed it at the lock. "Uhh, sorry," he whispered to the door, and fired. Wood splintered with a resounding bang, but no one took any notice, even as Tavros crawled inside and shut the door behind him.

The inside of Dualscar's quarters were, like his uniform, in absolute order. There was also not a thing inside that didn't sparkle, and maybe if Tavros was a good pirate he'd care, but his eyes scanned the room and settled on the display case by the desk. Mercifully, behind the shining glass was Crabclaw's cane, the same if not in better condition than the last time he saw it. Earlier, Tavros had with a shudder entertained the idea that it might have been auctioned off already, but it seemed what Mindfang said about Dualscar's ego was true.

The display was also locked, but all it took was throwing a heavy seahorse statuette through it get the cane out. It felt natural in its rightful owner's grip. The blade rang out like a bell when he slipped it from its sheaf and held it to the light. Unlike last time, he knew how to use it.

With the aid of the desk to get him to his feet, Tavros scrambled for the door, snatching an ornate compass off the desk on the way. It was the only one he could find, but if anyone deserved to be lost at sea, it was Dualscar and his men. Tavros swung the door open and nearly ran head-first into an officer. Letting out a roar, the man raised his sword high. Tavros ducked on instinct, slashing his sword across the other man's legs as he ran without glancing back to examine the consequences.

Overhead, lightening flashed and Tavros looked up in time to see Mindfang balancing with ease on the yard, blocking a blow from Dualscar's sword with her own. Their combat resembled a dance, even if they were trying to kill each other. How they both managed to stay up there, much less fight, was a mystery for another day. Tavros had somewhere to be.

He dropped himself into the lifeboat with the grace of a sack of potatoes. The mechanism to lower himself into the water was not unlike the one on the Freedom, but without the luxury of Twineye to operate it with care, Tavros simply hooked the lever with the dragon's head and yanked. The boat fell out from beneath him, and he along with it. They landed with a smack drowned up by thunder, sending up enough water to thoroughly drench Tavros. He shook his hair out and left the rest; staying dry was of little concern when the clouds were fit to burst already.

Tapping the compass to make sure the needle was steady, he picked up the oars and set off. Land was a long way away, and he had to make as much progress as he could before the storm broke.

Unfortunately, this was here that his luck ran out.

When the storm finally did finally break, it was among the most violent Tavros had ever experienced. The waves dwarfed his tiny boat and the wind seemed to blow right through him. He rowed on as hard as his arms would allow, but each stroke was but a tickle against the will of the sea. When the monster of a wave threw a shadow over his meager vessel, Tavros could do nothing slip the cane down his pant leg for safety, take in a lungful of air, and squeeze his eyes shut.

The water crashed down with the weight of a thousand ships. Tavros wouldn't have been surprised if the boat smashed to bits, but by that point he didn't even know which way was up. Turbulence washed bubbles in all directions, so even when a breath escaped him, it left no trail to follow to the surface. Tavros's lungs screamed for oxygen but all he could do was flail helplessly, wooden legs no good for mobility. Water filled his nose, his mouth, his eyes, salty and bitter and heavy. He panicked and it only made him swallow more.

His second to last thought was, _no, please, not like this._

His last thought was a memory of an unconscious, bleeding Vriska in the bottom of a lifeboat, beautiful enough to outshine the great Mindfang herself.


	7. Tavros

Tavros awoke to a weight on his chest and sea water welling up in his throat. He turned his head and heaved the contents of his stomach onto the wet sand. The weight promptly vanished and he was able to flip his whole body over to retch until all that was left was the afterburn. When he was empty, he squinted against the bright sunshine and tried to sit up. The cane, still held fast by his belt against his side, wouldn't let him. He pulled it out, laid it across his lap, and looked around.

He was on a beach. It stretch out and curved back in both directions, dotted only by black rocks. Behind him, palm trees swayed in the post-storm breeze. The surf lapped at the ends of his legs. Mother nature was docile again, but for some reason the hairs on the back of Tavros's neck still prickled as if he were being watched. He rubbed them and looked around once more to make perfectly sure he wasn't.

He was.

Just beyond where the waves curled, hair bloomed on the surface of the water, and dead in the center were two enormous yellow eyes. They got even wider when Tavros met them, and the whole head dunked back underwater like an exotic flower closing at the touch. Tavros, too, scrambled back a good twenty feet from the shoreline. He stared at the stop where the eyes had been for several minutes, barely breathing, before hesitantly calling out.

"Uhh, hello?"

No answer except the rumble of the surf. Tavros shakily got to his feet and inched closer. Still nothing. He continued until his peglegs edged the line between wet and dry sand. If he could help it, he'd never go into the water again. There was no trace of anyone below the waves, but off in the distance, Tavros could just spot something that looked like a dorsal fin. Perfect.

Throwing one last cautious glance into the sea, he began to walk. There was nothing else he could do, and if there were people to be found here, they had to be evidence of them on the coasts. After and hour he stopped briefly to rest on a fallen coconut tree. The stop turned into a longer endeavor when the coconuts proved very stubborn, but after half an hour of whacking one with a rock, Tavros managed to produce a crack big enough to wedge his blade into and pry open. He had never like coconuts very much, but this one tasted like heaven.

With something in his stomach, he continued down the beach. The sun was an hour from setting when he came upon the same fallen tree a second time. On the long, exhausting trip around, he had passed no people, no boats, and no houses.

Tavros's legs wobbled a bit, but he knew that if he sat down, he'd just end up thinking too much. If he thought about how he was stranded and what that meant, he'd probably get sad and scared, and he knew he wasn't brave or strong enough to face that stuff. The sun would start to set soon after all, so he had to get a fire going. Sitting was entirely out of the question.

The sun sky was completely dark by the time he managed to get the fire going, but he stripped off everything but his pants none the less and laid the clothes out to finish drying. No sunlight also meant he'd be having a coconut for dinner. Despite his best efforts, as he struggled to carve the white flesh out of the hard shell, all sorts nasty little realizations began to creep up on him.

He could die here, and no one would even know. All the work he did, all the stuff he learned, all the times he fell down when learning to walk again were useless. He had always dreamed he'd die in battle like a real hero, but he knew those were pipe dreams from the start. It was possible he could live here, maybe find fresh water, maybe live off coconut milk for the rest of his life, but the idea of the whole world suddenly being one island and he the only man in it made him feel very small. Small, not like the son of one of the greatest pirates that ever lived, but like the son of a prostitute in a town that wasn't anymore. He wasn't sure he was ready to be 'just Tavros' anymore, as if it mattered since he'd probably never see another human being again.

~

A fat tear fell on his blade and bounced off in every direction. Tavros wiped it away with the heel of his hand and looked away. His eye caught a shadow on the beach, right by the water where before there had been nothing. He jumped, caught sight of two enormous predator eyes refracting yellow, and screamed.

A girl's voice screamed back, and the silhouette on the shore turned around and dived into a curling wave. Where legs should have been, there was a tangle of tentacles.

Or maybe he was crazy.

"Wait, uhh, don't go!" Tavros called as he stumbled up. He took a step forward, then two, but couldn't bring himself to go any more. "Please come back!"

For the longest time there was nothing, and then a wave rose up, crashed down, and behind it a mound of hair and two huge eyes bobbed up and down in the water. Tavros froze up at the sight. Another wave came and for a second the eyes were blocked from view. He didn't know if he was relieved or not that they were still there when the wave fell.

"Uhh, hello," he forced.

The eyes darted to look him up and down, and then a head pulled itself out of the water just high enough to talk. When she spoke, the fins on the sides of her face moved.

"You're not human," she announced, but there was a hint of question in it.

"No, uhh, no, I am," he stuttered in reply.

"No you're not," she frowned. "Humans have those little flipper things." An arm emerged from the water and she pointed at the spot where Tavros stood.

"Oh, uhh, you mean feet?"

"Whatever."

Tavros rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I don't really, uhh, have them anymore."

"Why not?"

"They, uhh...stopped working."

The girl in the water rolled her eyes. "Humans sure are weird."

Tavros waited for her to say something else, but the only sound that came were the waves lapping at the beach.

"So, um, are you a, uhh, a mermaid?"

"Duhhh," she giggled. "Only the mermaid that saved your life! But don't tell anyone," she added with a finger to her lips. "I'm not supposed to reveal myself."

"Oh!" Tavros dragged the end of his leg around in the sand awkwardly. "Thanks for that, uhh, saving me that is."

"Well no need to thank me! I thought you fell off that ship nearby," she shrugged. "But then you didn't have flippers, and I didn't want to leave you on the same island as them because you might have been evil," here she exaggerated the last word my forming claws with her fingers and baring her teeth. She had a lot of teeth. They were more like a million curved needles shoved into her gums. "And that meant you might endanger the love of my life and I wasn't about to let _that_ happen! No way!"

Here she paused as if to say something else, and Tavros used the opportunity to cut in with the only pressing question he'd been able to hear since she mentioned it.

"There's a ship around here?"

"Oh, yeah," she pointed. "By the island waaaay over there. But it won't be there for long. I overheard them saying they'll leave tomorrow morning when the tide changes, so not long after sunrise."

Tavros's stomach sank. "Are there any, uhh, human settlements around here?"

"Oh no," she waved her hand at him as if the notion was ridiculous. "Not for days and days of swimming. I lead them here so my love wouldn't die in the storm. Humans _never _come here on their own. Gross, are you going to throw up again?"

He wasn't entirely sure. His one chance of escape was on another island, which meant that he'd have to go in the water again. The memory of drowning was still crystal clear in his mind, clear enough that it made his heart race and air seem scarce just thinking about it. Shivering, he hugged himself and rubbed his shoulders.

"I, I don't want to stay on this island until, uhh, forever, but also I don't think it would be, uhh, possible to swim to that island, for me that is."

"Oh it's easy!" the mermaid exclaimed. "Although... you do suck at swimming pretty hard. It'll probably take you ages and ages and ages."

Tavros's grip on his cane tightened. "Do you, uhh, think I can make it still?"

"Maybe," she showed off her million teeth in a grin that might have been friendly if her mouth wasn't enormous and terrifying. "Not without my help though."

~

"You'd help me?"

"Well not for _free_! I mean you're my pet human, but come on!"

"Oh," Tavros looked around, too focused on escape to be more than mildly disturbed. "Well, uhh, what do you want?"

"That thing," she pointed at the dragon cane.

"Sorry, but, uhh, I can't," Tavros answered, instinctively pulling it closer. "I, uhh, I need to return this to somebody, and for walking also."

"Well!" the mermaid huffed. "I guess I won't help you then."

Tavros looked back at his fire frantically. The only things he had were the cane and the clothes on his back. Unless... He patted his pockets and, sure enough, the weight was still there.

"What about this?" he asked, holding out Dualscar's ornate compass for her to see.

The mermaid squinted at it, and then with speed to make Tavros jump, darted forward onto the beach. Several long spines stuck out of her back, which could explain why instead of clothes she wore two large starfish on her chest. For a second she looked as if she might pounce at his neck as she dragged herself toward him unblinkingly, but anyone close to the ground with teeth like that gleaming by the light of a fire would look like they were out to kill, at least Tavros hoped. Unfortunately, hope wasn't enough to keep him from yelping when she grabbed him by the wrist with her claws and yanked forward to get a better look at the compass in his hand.

"It's gorgeous," she murmured before swiftly plucking it out of his hand but not letting go of his wrist. "Deal. I swear on my crown to help you to the island, human. Let's go!"

She jerked Tavros forward and he stumbled.

"Wait, what about, uhh, my-"

"You won't need your clothes, stupid," she said as took the compass from her hand with one of her many tentacles and slipped it away somewhere. "They'll only weigh you down."

But Tavros wasn't worried about what he was leaving behind the second a wave of icy water shocked him across the chest. He suddenly couldn't breathe again.

"Oh come _on_!" the mermaid sighed as she heaved him forward. "Do you want to go or don't you?"

"I- I-" When he was climbing to Mindfang's crow's nest, he had a mantra of not looking own or thinking about the height or falling or the pain in his muscles. This was the same; do or die. He just had to tell himself not to think about the water, and, failing that, think about something else. He had to think about the ship on the other side that would take him to a port. He had to think about how he would work there while he listened for rumors of where Crabclaw and his crew could be. He had to think about how he would find them. He had to think about Gamzee, and Moonpaw, and Darkleer, and Slick, and Twineye. And Vriska. "I want to go."

"Well okay then, hurry up and get in the water!"

He was already up to his waist at this point, but he squeezed his eyes shut and wade further into the freezing cold. It took him a second to overcome all instinct and sink in to his neck.

"See! That wasn't so hard, was it?"

Every cell in his body was screaming for him to get back to land as fast as he could.

Vriska wouldn't be this afraid.

"...I guess."

Once he actually got swimming, freezing water and having to stroke with his cane in one hand aside, it wasn't too bad. The mermaid, who introduced herself as Feferi once they got going, would swim circles around him and laugh sometimes, but all in all she was pretty friendly for someone that was more or less half sea monster. He didn't say much in return except to mumble a stroke rhyme for himself under his breath.

~

And then the dorsal fin reappeared in the water again. Tavros had completely forgotten about it since the day before, but now all he could do was thrash in the water as it made a beeline right for him. As if death by shark was not enough, as it got closer a blue spear protruded from the water and aimed itself right between Tavros's eyes before Feferi caught it with her hand and pushed it away.

"Eridan!" she shrieked. "What the shell?"

The dorsal fin disappeared and an angry pouting boy's face took its place. He also had fins on the sides of his face, but when he spoke he had the usual number of teeth. Pointed, serrated, equally horrifying teeth. "What the fuck are you doin' with this guy, Fef?"

"None of your business!"

"Yes it is."

"No it's not!"

"Yes it is!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"Uhh..."

They both glared at Tavros with their creepy yellow eyes, as if he didn't have enough trouble just treading water and keeping his head above the surface. Before he could summon the courage to ask them to please stop fighting if that was okay, he felt something tug him down sharply the leg. Suddenly his head wasn't above the surface anymore.

He only gurgled for a second before Feferi's hair was suddenly in his face. He cracked his eyes open against the salt in time to see her pry something slug-like from his pegleg with her claws. It curled away, treading small ribbons of purple behind it. As Feferi pulled him back up, Tavros could have sworn he was looking at the bottom half of an enormous seahorse. Instead, after wiping his eyes on the surface, he realized it was a sulky merboy.

"What did you do that for?" the boy whined.

Feferi huffed and stuck her nose in the air. "Let's go," she said, taking Tavros by the arm and dragging him along at her own pace. "Eridan is just a mean clam snorter and we're not talking to him."

"I'm not a clam snorter," the merboy protested as he swam to intercept them again. "And you're breaking the rules! I'll tell on you!"

"You wouldn't dare!" she snapped indignantly.

"Fine," he crossed his arms. "It'll be our secret if you kill him right now."

Tavros really wished he could be anywhere else but here right now, but Feferi was still holding onto him pretty tightly and he didn't want to draw any more attention to himself by struggling.

"No way," she frowned. "I swore on my crown that I'd help him."

"That doesn't fuckin' mean anything if he's not a sea dweller!" the merboy exclaimed, throwing his arms into the air.

"It does to me! It's a fair trade. Look, here's what he gave me." A tentacle rose out of the water, and with it Dualscar's compass. "See," she waved it in Eridan's face. "It even has a picture of seaweed on it."

~

Eridan snatched it from her and turned it around in his hands. "That's not fuckin' seaweed, Fef," he said, examining the symbol Dualscar always wore on his breast pocket and turning it so the lines were horizontal instead of vertical. "Those are waves."

"It's seaweed if I say it's seaweed!" she snapped as she snatched it back. "Now either help me get him to the island with the boat or go away!"

"No way," he pouted. "He has to die. Those are the rules."

Feferi growled something back, but whatever it was, it was no language Tavros had ever heard. Eridan seemed to understand it just fine though, because he replied in the same blur of growls and clicks. The human looked between the two of them, and then off to the distance. In front, there was just a black expanse of moving water and clouds. Behind, it looked as if they hadn't made any progress at all.

Meanwhile, the merpeople had grown silent. Feferi had let go of Tavros and had clasped her hands together, eyes huge. Whatever she was going, it must have worked, because a long silence later Eridan ground his pointy teeth together and hissed something in their language. Feferi grinned and latched onto Tavros again.

"Come on," she chirped in a language he could understand. "He's just going to follow behind to make sure you don't try anything. Feel free to ignore him!" and then under her breath, "I certainly will."

Sure enough, the merboy would do just that, forever ten paces behind, saying nothing while glaring a hole in the back of Tavros's head. For a while the human swam on his own, but as the hours dwindled he had to rely more and more on the mermaid. She didn't seem to mind, but the feel of her tentacles wasn't something Tavros ever thought he could get used to. Still, having a voice to focus on made the trip through the bottomless sea of water ready to swallow him up at any given moment somewhat more bearable.

As the first light lit up the water, Tavros could see the island not far off.

"The ship's on the other side," Feferi told him right as the sun was on the cusp of hitting the horizon. "Can you take it from here?"

"Uhh, what?" It was a little far to swim on his own, especially after spending all night in the water already.

"You'll be fine!" she assured as she pried a stunned Tavros off. "Besides, I have to go! The sun isn't good for us. But here, take this."

And then, without any warning, she bit his wrist.

Tavros yowled and flailed in the water, almost dropping the cane.

"That means I own you," she indicated. "If you ever run into trouble with someone like Eridan trying to kill you, just show them that."

Tavros just stared at her. Bleeding in the middle of the ocean at dawn was the last thing he wanted. Not only was it dangerous, the salt hurt and he didn't even have a spare hand with which to hold the injury.

Feferi must have found the look on his face funny, because she giggled. "Good luck catching that boat," she waved. "Bye now!"

And just like that, she dipped under the waves and was gone.

Unease set in again. By the time Tavros felt his peglegs touch ground, the sun was almost completely up. He stumbled out of the surf, staying upright only by the virtue of the waterlogged cane. As he tipped the water out of the sheaf, he heard someone calling from the water.

"Hey!" Feferi yelled. "I just remembered! Will you pass on a message for me?"

Tavros didn't have the energy to be annoyed that she made him swim alone for the past hour only to come back. He nodded.

"Yay! Okay, just tell him 'hi' and that I love him!"

Eridan popped up next to her, shielding himself from the sun under Feferi's hair. "And a big 'fuck you' from me while you're at it."

"Who?" Tavros shouted back.

"His name is Geminate," Feferi called back.

~

Tavros froze. "Like, uhh, Geminate Twineye?"

"Yeah, that's his name! So can you?"

"Yeah," Tavros nodded, already starting down the beach. "Yeah, uhh, I can. Bye!"

"Later," Feferi called, but he already wasn't looking back.

No time to contemplate ridiculous twists of fate. No time to think about how sore or hungry of sticky from sea salt he was. There was only time to run, or at least the closest equivalent Tavros could manage on wooden legs. The beach curved and suddenly there it was. Far, far down the shore, the Freedom bobbed up and down in the water, unfurling her familiar sails.

"Hey!" Tavros bellowed as loud as his ragged lungs could manage. "Wait!" He pushed his legs faster, but he knew there was no way he could get there in time if they didn't hear him. And why would they? They were too far away, too far.

He didn't know what he'd do if they just sailed off. He didn't want to think about it. They were within his grasp. Of all the hardships the world had thrown at him in his life, he could only beg every god he could think of not to let the burden of living with this one hope snatched from under him be one of them.

As the thought formed in his mind he pushed himself forward faster, and as a result, tripped. Painfully. He cried out as the rock dug into his knee, and when he stood, sand clung to the wound and made it next to unbearable. The best he could do was limp, and the Freedom was still not showing any signs of turning.

And then, the miracle happened. Something red flashed in the distance. Tavros slowed as it got closer. He could have sworn he was dreaming until he actually felt Tinkerbull's wings beat against his face and leave little scratches in his shoulder from his claws and little nips on his ear from his beak. Tavros stretched out a hand and the bird landed briefly, pecked at his fingers, and flew up again, circling around high above. His owner limped forward again, eyes to the sky as he watched his best friend fly overhead before speeding back to the ship.

Tavros's eyes followed him and he was able to catch the little splash of something falling overboard. It was too small to be the anchor, but Tavros's eyes stayed fixed on the spot as he propelled himself as fast as his prosthetics could bear. A minute later, it turned out to not be some_thing_ that had gone overheard, but some_one_. She stumbled from out of the waves, barely more than a dot in the distance, but between the shaggy hair and the glint of metal where a left hand should be, the figure was unmistakable.

Naturally, she covered a lot more ground a lot faster on her way to Tavros. She stopped right before she reached him though, her face twisted from either trying not to smile or trying not to cry, or maybe just from sprinting too long. Tavros should have stopped, too, but he didn't, not after she had unknowingly served as his beacon of light in the darkness and gotten him through more near-death experiences than he could count. The difference now was that she was here this time, in the flesh, and he had been through too much, was too exhausted in every sense, to care about trying not to disappoint anyone. He let the cane drop to the sand as he hugged her as tight as his protesting muscles would allow. They were both covered in sea water anyway.

"You idiot," she hissed, thumping him pretty hard on the shoulder but not sounding like she seriously meant it. "You stupid, stupid, stupid, dumbass. I hate you. I hate you. I hate-"

"I missed you, too, Vriska," he interrupted, actually interrupted for once in his life. He'd never actually cut anyone off before. Never ever. But recklessness had gotten him to hell and back, and the part of his brain that hadn't slept in over twenty-four ours assured him one more risk wouldn't hurt.

So he kissed her. 


End file.
